What Doesn't Kill You
by Insanity Allegra
Summary: In a universe where the First Human never died, the seven that followed would be welcomed with open arms. Frisk is perfectly fine making their own way in the little town of Snowdin, but the appearance of two small skeletons digging through their trash changes everything. A series of connected, non-chronological oneshots. Officially Frisk/Chara now. Babyblasters!Handplates!AU
1. Night Terrors 1

I don't own Undertale, it was created by Toby Fox. The Babyblaster AU was, I believe, created by Spacegate on tumblr, and Handplates was created by Zarla on DA.

Warnings: Child Abuse, Medical Abuse, unethical experimentation on small children. Possible Slash and a definitely non-chronological timeline.

P.S. There are no Blasters in this one, and it's all from Frisk's pov. But I assure you, it all will come together.

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 _It's not an easy life_ , Frisk thinks, a moment after they're startled awake by the sound of wailing. But it's one they're determined to make work.

Frisk throws on their robe and rushes into the next room, not bothering to knock. The heartbroken wail is coming from within, wordless and keening, and they know better than to hesitate.

The door opens to reveal a mid-sized bedroom. Toys are strewn across the floor, and one full-sized bed is tucked into the corner. Frisk picks their way over to the bed and sits on the edge.

They are immediately pounced on by a fairly small child, a skeleton, wearing bright orange pajamas and clinging to their side, sniffling.

But Papyrus isn't the one screaming, so Frisk scoops him up and sits him behind them, just in case.

Another small skeleton is curled in the corner, shaking and screeching in absolute misery. He's stouter than Papyrus, and wearing blue pajamas, but while his eyes glow blue with magic, they clearly aren't actually seeing Frisk.

They sigh, softly, and inch closer to the child. Sans growls at them, but Frisk keeps coming. It wouldn't be the first time Sans had attacked them after a nightmare or during a flashback. It was why they Saved every night before bed. They could take a hit, but not twenty, and it was a hassle to Load a save point from a week ago and relive all that time just because Sans had a nightmare. Not to mention the poor kid would spend the whole time apologizing for it and worrying Papyrus, who never remembered the reloads.

Frisk wrapped their arms around the kid, who gave a hiccup and clutched back.

Good. He was _here_ again.

"... mom?"

Frisk sucks in a breath. They usually hated any kind of feminine alias, but had made a special exemption for that one, because every time they heard it, warmth flared in their chest and they were filled with Determination.

"Are you alright, Sans?"

"m'fine..." The small skeleton muttered. "jus' a nightmare..."

Frisk gives a little sigh. "I'll call Danielle, have her pencil you in for a session tomorrow before we go see the King and Queen."

Sans makes a noise like he wants to argue, so Frisk pokes him. "Sans."

"... m'kay, i'll go see the therapist tomorrow. you'll be there, right?" He sounds so terrified that they'll leave him alone that they hug him tighter.

"Always, Sans." She picks him up, snagging Papyrus as well. The littler child has already gone back to sleep, confident that Frisk would help his elder sibling.

It's not an easy life by any stretch of their imagination, but Frisk wouldn't have it any other way.

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The next morning dawns as many do for Frisk, bright and cold and with two tired skeletons curled up in their bed. Frisk carefully dislodges themself from the tangle of blankets so as not to disturb them and heads to the kitchen to make their phone call. They stop briefly to use the Save Point hanging around their neck, then pick up their cell and dial.

"Waterfall Clinic," the sweet voice on the other end singsongs. "This is Cindy speaking, how may I help you?"

"Yes, this is Frisk Seraphee. Can you transfer me to Dr. Davis, please?"

"Just a moment." The hold music comes on, and Frisk reflects on how the more things are different between the Underground and the Surface, the more they're the same.

"Yo, Frisky Business! What's happening, dolly?"

Frisk rolls their eyes. It's hard to imagine the voice on the other end is a qualified _anything_ , let alone the best therapist in the Underground. Then again, as a waitress in a tiny bar located in _Snowdin_ of all places, maybe they aren't one to talk.

"I need an emergency appointment."

"Uh oh. Sans again?"

"Yes."

"Three o'clock?"

"I'm not off until two. Three-thirty?"

"It's a date, dollface!"

Frisk huffs. "Whatever, see you then."

After their phone call, Frisk runs to the bathroom to shower. Ten minutes later they're walking back into their room, fully dressed and toweling their hair. They nip into the boys' room, snatching some clean clothes, and then head to their bed to change them out of their pjs. Papyrus wakes up during this, of course.

"GOOD MORNING MOM!" He says, and they glance at Sans. It's not that Pap is loud, really, he just has a very distinct voice, but Sans needed all the sleep he could get.

"Good morning dear." They hand him his pants, then move over to change Sans. They've got to be at work in thirty minutes, so they need to leave ASAP.

Once they're all ready to go, bundled in their jackets and scarves and boots, Frisk carries the still-sleeping Sans and the alert and chattering Papyrus to Grillby's for thier shift.

It's a beautiful day outside. The birds are singing, they're sure that _somewhere_ in the Underground the flowers are blooming, and they hope it will be a good one.


	2. Sans's Angel 1

Sans remembered the day he met their angel.

It had started with torn trash bags, he and his brother in their Blaster forms and digging desperately through them, searching for something, _anything_ to fill their bellies.

Then, unexpectedly, a noise.

His head whipped around and he stared at the human woman.

The human woman stared back.

"... Hi?" She said slowly.

Sans grabbed Pap by the back of his ratty shirt and _ran for it_.

He tried to find food at other places for the next few nights, but they were all either too close to the center of town where all the people were, or didn't have more than a few scraps in their trash. With few other options, he decided that they should try the human's home again. There had been food there, not a lot, but more than he'd seen elsewhere.

He snuck around the side of the building and went to knock over the cans when -

"This would be a lot better than anything you'd find in there, little puppies."

Sans snapped his head around to look at the human who was suddenly just _there_. Pap, lying on his back, raised his little head to sniff in her direction.

Sans considered the bowl of liquid that he recognized from years and years ago as milk. The Doctor, back when Sans was a tiny little thing, even younger than Pap, hadn't been so bad... But that time was long gone, and he had to focus on the right now.

Beside the bowl of milk was a bowl of what looked like cooked, ground meat. It smelled heavenly.

Before he could tell Pap no, don't trust it, the littler Blaster had squirmed free of the scarf he'd been tied to Sans's back with, hopped down, bounded over and simply shoved his muzzle in the bowl of milk.

The human lady laughed softly, then looked up at him. "You coming, Sweetheart? It's good." She stuck her fingers in the bowl of crumbled meat, popping a bit in her own mouth. "Mmm. Makes me miss Wendy's, though."

While he had no clue what 'Wendy's' was supposed to be, he knew the lady wouldn't have eaten any of it if it wasn't safe, so he cautiously moved forward until he reached the bowl, then stuck his muzzle in it to taste.

It was really, _really_ good. After a couple bites, just to be absolutely certain it was safe, he stepped back and nudged Pap over to make sure his little brother could eat his fill.

Papyrus, without warning, decided to shift, and Sans yelped as the pops and snaps of bones reshaping and rearranging filled the area. They needed to have another talk about not revealing themselves to others...

"... Well I certainly wasn't expecting _that_." The human said slowly, running a hand through her hair.

Pap looked up at her. "Tank'oo!"

Sans flinched, and he could feel his eye start to glow as his magic readied itself. What if she hurt Pap for daring to speak out of tu-

"Oh, you're so _cute_!" The human _cooed_ , getting down on her hands and knees to look Pap in the eyes. "Do you have a name, little one?"

Pap clapped. "I'S PAP-Y-RUS!" He pointed at Sans. "IS BIG BRUDDER SANS!"

The woman laughed. "Well it's very nice to meet you, Papyrus."

Pap wasn't even paying attention anymore, now simply shoving handfuls of the meat in his mouth, so the human turned her attention to Sans.

The lady eyed Sans in a way that made him extremely uncomfortable, as though she knew each and every one of his secrets and was just waiting for him to crack and admit them. Even the Doctor didn't have a stare like that... Perhaps it was a human thing? Or maybe a female thing? He swallowed reflexively, shifting form himself so he could speak.

"um."

Well, that wasn't exactly eloquent, was it?

"please stop looking at me like that?" He tried, bracing himself for her potential anger for speaking. Stupid, he was so _stupid_.

She actually snorted, rolling her eyes up towards the sky. Sans looked up too, but didn't see anything of interest. Why was she looking up there?

"You can come in if you like. It's bound to be warmer inside."

Sans shook his head rapidly, inching towards the food. Why was she inviting him in? He didn't understand, and that scared him. The human hummed in response, stepping away from both the bowl and his brother, who had sat on the wet, cold ground, having eaten his fill.

"That offer is always open." The human said softly, and Sans blinked up at her. "I'm not normally here during the day, but if you ever want a warm place to spend the night, just come knock on my door, okay, Sweetheart?"

Sans nodded warily. He didn't think he'd ever take her up on the offer, but she was more likely to leave them alone if he just agreed and moved on.

"If you come back tomorrow, I'll leave you out some food." She added as she stood and stepped to the back door of her small house.

And then she was gone, inside without so much as a goodbye.

Humans were _weird_.


	3. Gaster Has A Bad Time 1

Wingdings Gaster was extremely peeved.

He'd had to go into hiding shortly after those blasted experiments had escaped and the Royal Guard had started hunting him down. Didn't they understand that he had done it for the better of all monster-kind? If Asgore and Toriel would've just killed the humans that fell into the Underground, they'd be free by now! But no, they wanted to welcome the beasts as friends. And then when he'd tried to come up with a way out that didn't involve hurting the freaking humans, they started hunting him down like the vermin he'd created!

It was infuriating.

He was so steamed at the injustice of it all that he didn't notice that someone had burst into his lab until the knife flew past his head, embedding itself into the wall and still vibrating from the force of the throw.

Very, very slowly, he turned.

A human was standing there. They wore a simple, brown cloak, tied around the waist with twine and the hood obscuring their face.

"W.D. Gaster. We finally meet." Their voice could've belonged to either gender...

"Who are you!?" He snarled, getting ready to pull their Soul into a Fight.

"I'm... Nobody." They chuckled. "Who are you?"

Gaster yanked their Soul onto the battlefield. It was bright red.

Determination.

"Why are you here?" He demanded.

The human drew another knife from angel-knows-where and lunged for him. He dodged, sent a barrage of conjured bones and syringes cloaked in dark blue Integrity magic.

His attack was effortlessly dodged as the human seemed to dance out of the way. "Wait, are you Nobody too?"

The human came back at him with the knife and he skipped to the side, trying not to panic. "Who are you!?" He cloaked their soul in gravity magic and sent another barrage, but they leapt over it nimbly as though they'd done it a thousand times before.

"Then there's a pair of us – don't tell!" Another lunge, another dodge. Neither of them were hitting each other, but he didn't think their stalemate would last much longer.

Where had they even come from?

"I demand you tell me who you are!" Attack. He actually hit them this time, but it barely seemed to phase them. How much HP did they even have?

"They'd banish us, you know." They were attacking again. Dodge.

"What are you even talking about!?" A much more complicated pattern, thought up on the spot. One more hit, still barely any reaction.

They just chuckled again. It was becoming rather unsettling.

"How dreary to be somebody!" 

To be honest, he could've sworn he'd heard this before... It sounded like a poem, but he couldn't for the life of him come up with its origins. He attacked again, managing to hit them, several times. Finally, he was getting somewhere.

… Except that the fucking human used their new turn to down half of a Bycicle. "How public, like a frog."

A frog? What was this human even on? He fired another series of syringes, noting in the abstract that his lab was indeed thoroughly trashed. "Are you high?" he demanded, for lack of a better question to ask.

Was the human using his attacks as a blasted springboard? He barely made it out of the way of the knife this time. "To tell your name, the livelong day..."

He sent a completely random string of attacks, desperate to regain some ground – The human was backing him against the wall. "WILL YOU SHUT UP, YOU BEAST!?"

"... To an admiring bog!" The human lunged, but as he dodged, he realized too late that that was what they were counting on, as a foot connected with the side of his skull.

As everything went fuzzy and then black, the last thing he saw was the human removing their hood to reveal shoulder-length brown hair and a mischievous grin.

"Well, good news to bring home to the kids, at least. Whoda thunk the Ex-Royal Scientist wouldn't know his Emily Dickenson?"


	4. Night Terrors 2

Frisk opens the door to Grillby's with their elbow, stomping their feet in the entrance to get the worst of the snow off. Warm hands carefully pull Pap from their arms, and the four-year-old shouts a greeting.

"HI GRILLBY!"

The fire monster chuckles. "Good morning, Papyrus."

Sans makes an annoyed noise, burrowing deeper into their arms. Grillby laughs.

"Breakfast for the boys is on the table in the break room."

Frisk gives him their number 1 Look of Adoration. "If there weren't an age difference of five thousand years between us, I would kiss you." They say seriously. Their expression morphs into one of confusion. "And if you weren't made of fire. I may be an admitted incorrigible flirt, but even _I_ draw the line at third-degree burns on my mouth."

This sets Grillby laughing, and the noise makes Sans let out a furious whine.

Frisk rolls their eyes and pokes him. "C'mon, Sweetheart, time to face the day."

"noooo."

"Sans! Rattle your bones, kiddo, it's time to get up."

"dun'wanna."

"Breakfast?" Frisk tried to coax.

They got an inarticulate noise of irritation in return.

"BROTHER! BREAKFAST IS THE MOST IMPORTANT MEAL OF THE DAY!" Papyrus quotes Frisk's oft-spoken refrain, and they can't help but grin at the improvement to his speech patterns from when they'd first found him.

"paaaap. wan'sleep..."

"BUT IT'S TIME TO BE AWAKE!"

"paaaaaaaaaaaaaaap..." Frisk has to admit that Sans's indignation at having to face the day is adorable, especially on the heels of yet another nightmare.

Frisk pulls him away from their chest and smirks slightly when he winces at the sudden intrusion of light. "C'mon, Lazybones. Up and at 'em."

"fiiiine." Sans whines, rubbing his eye sockets. Frisk laughs playfully and sweeps into the building, carrying Sans towards the back with their boss following behind.

Grillby didn't strictly _need_ a waitress. He ran a bar, after all, and before Frisk arrived in Snowdin, he'd run it by himself, and that was _fine_.

But then he'd met a fifteen-year-old human child, cold and wet and afraid and alone, who'd stumbled through the Ruins and then the freezing route to Snowdin, fleeing from monsters and wanting nothing more than to get back home. They'd recognized his place as somewhere there was food, and their hunger had outweighed their fear of the monsters.

Grillby had been kind and understanding, going so far as to escort them to meet the King and Queen and their two children, one of whom was another human.

King Asgore had offered to have a home built for them, and Frisk decided that Snowdin was as good a place as any to stay. They had been startled at the job offer, but pleased, too, and had been coming in six days a week since. This job was as much a way to pass the time as it was to pay the bills.

The first thing they do is grab the large jar full of Gold on the corner of the counter and dump it into their bag, then replace it and head to the break room. The jar is two-fold in purpose; it holds their day's tips, and it's the bar's swear jar. Ever since they'd started bringing the kids to work, shortly after they'd moved in with them (they did need to pay bills after all, sudden influx of abused kids or not) the pair (Sans in particular) had been picking up bad words. One infuriated conversation with Grillby later had resulted in the Tip Jar becoming the Tip-And-Swear Jar.

After Grillby had stopped laughing at their description of Sans asking them what a 'titty' was, of course.

Frisk enters the break room and sits Sans in the chair beside Papyrus. "Behave yourselves, okay?"

They nod, shoveling food in like they haven't eaten in a week. Frisk rolls their eyes and snags a granola bar, heading back to the front of the bar. There were tables to wipe and prep to do.

It takes only a few minutes, and then they rush to flip the open sign.

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Four hours later, Frisk pokes their head into the break room. "You two doing alright?"

"YES!"

"fine, mom."

"WANNA DO THE PUZZLE WITH US?" Pap gestures to the thousand-piece picture-puzzle on the floor between them. It's a nice, rare find here in the Underground, completely intact and not missing a single piece. Frisk knew that, like for a good portion of the other children's toys in the break room, whoever had donated it had paid a pretty penny for it. They wanted to pay everyone back for their kindness, but every single person they'd offered to reimburse for the toys, the books, the clothes, the furniture, the _everything_ flat-out refused to take it.

"I can spare a couple minutes." They smile, sitting on the floor.

A while later, a grinning flame monster sticks his head in the room. "Frisk. Frisk! _Frisk_!"

They jump, both of their boys yelping. "... My break's over, isn't it?"

"Your shift is over, kid."

Frisk resists the urge to swear, instead apologizing frantically. Grillby just laughs.

"If I needed you, I would've come and got you. We didn't have three customers all afternoon."

"Still..."

"You got quite a bit done, boys." Grillby cooes at the skeletons. "How about I leave it here and you can finish tomorrow?"

"THANK YOU GRILLBY!"

The flame monster grins.

"Come on, boys. We'd better head out, or we'll be late for Sans's appointment with Dani."

The little family of three trooped out, their destination Waterfall.


	5. Dinner with the Dreamurrs

I got a request for ages of the characters. You'll find them, and some short character bios for the Human Souls, at the bottom.

~! #$%^&*()_+

"Chara, Asriel, these are my sons, Sans and Papyrus."

"HELLO!"

"hi..."

"Aw! They're adorable! Howdy, little guys!" Asriel cheered. Papyrus mimicked him, throwing his hands in the air.

Chara chuckled, their red eyes flicking over to peer at Frisk. "You haven't been to see us in a while."

They shrugged. "I had to wait 'till the boys were comfortable, and to... Confirm... Certain things."

"You had to make sure Dad wasn't involved with Gaster's _mess_." Chara corrected softly.

Frisk could feel Sans's eyes on them, and knew that, though Pap and Asriel were chattering animatedly, the elder sibling was listening to their every word. "Can you blame me?"

Chara pulled at their locket. "Some say the world will end in fire. Some say in ice."

Frisk knew the other (and their poetry) well enough after almost three years to interpret their quote, and understood that they weren't blaming Frisk for their caution. "From what I've tasted of desire, I hold with those who favor fire." They quoted back.

"But if it had to perish twice," Chara sighed, looking at Sans rather sadly. "I think I know enough of hate..."

Frisk picked him up. "... To say that for destruction ice is also great, and would suffice."

"If I ever get my hands on that bastard Gaster, I will dust his ass." Chara hissed.

"Language!" Frisk admonished, though they wholeheartedly agreed.

"I mean it! Who does he think he is?! Does he get off on this shit?"

"That's two gold, and we'll talk about it later."

"You're seriously imposing swear jar rules on me?"

"Children will repeat _anything_." Frisk stressed.

Sans made an embarrassed noise. "uh..."

"Ooh! What new word did you ask them about?" Chara asked eagerly. Sans's cheekbones lit up with a bright blue blush. "Come on, you can tell Antle Chara!"

"Antle? _Seriously_?"

"Well I don't wanna be Uncle or Aunt!"

"Well you can just suck it up. If I can handle being Mom you can handle being Uncle. Or Aunt! Just pick one!"

Chara swooned overdramatically. "The horror! I have to use _pronouns_!"

Sans chuckled softly.

"I guess I'll just be Auntie Chara, then."

Frisk laughed. "Not Uncle?"

"Nah, too mainstream."

"When did you become a hipster?"

Chara snickered. "Anyway. Mom and Dad are gonna be annoyed if we don't get in to eat. Come on."

Still grinning, Frisk followed them into the dining room.

~! #$%^&*()_+

Queen Toriel cooed over Sans and Papyrus, winning the younger child's instant adoration at the promise of pie. Sans was a little more wary, but his walls fell rather quickly when the bad jokes started.

That was the only thing Frisk couldn't stand about their formerly-weekly dinners with the royal family.

The _endless_ stream of puns from Toriel and Asriel. It was ridiculous. They didn't know how Chara could stand it!

"ARE YOU VERY BUSY, YOUR HIGHNESS? MOM SAYS THAT BEING QUEEN IS A VERY DIFFICULT JOB. SHE ALSO SAYS HER JOB IS EASY, AND MOM IS ALWAYS BUSY, SO IF YOUR JOB IS HARDER YOU MUST BE BUSIER, RIGHT?"

Toriel laughed. "Indeed! I have a lot of work to do, to make sure that all of the monsters and humans of the Underground are happy as they can be!" Her eyes lit up, and both Frisk and Chara let out preemptive groans. "One could say I have a _ton_ of work! A _skele-ton_!"

"GAH! NO MORE, MOM!" Chara screeched. Sans burst out into adorable little snickers.

"You don't think I'm _punny_? Am I _punishing_ you, my child?"

" _MOOOOOOOOOOM!_ "

"Come on, sib, lighten up. It's not in Mom's _character_ to give up on her puns!"

"... Seriously, Asriel?" Frisk leveled a glare at him. "That one was such a stretch."

"It's _asriel_ as it gets, Frisk!"

"Okay, I'm done!" Chara dramatically threw their hands in the air and stood up. "I'm out! You people are all crazy!" They stormed out of the room.

"... er. mom? will they be back?"

In response, Frisk just held up a hand and counted down from five. "Five. Four. Three. Two. One."

Chara ran back in the room, a bottle of thick red liquid in hand. Before anyone could react, they splashed it all over Asriel.

"AAH!"

Frisk burst out laughing. "They got ya, Goat Boy!"

"What is this stuff!?"

"Corn syrup dyed red. It's stage blood. Oddette told me how to make it. Girl's quite the performer."

"But I don't wanna take a bath!"

"Too bad, hun." Frisk grinned. "They gotcha good."

"Moooooom! Daaaad!" Asriel looked to the King and Queen for support, only to realize they were laughing too hard to even hear the conversation the teens were having. "Oh, come on!"

Sans was snickering, but Papyrus looked upset. Frisk noticed this and asked him what was wrong.

"THAT WASN'T VERY NICE!"

Chara stopped their chortling to stare at the small skeleton.

"SIBLINGS SHOULDN'T BE MEAN TO EACH OTHER LIKE THAT!"

The first Fallen Human gaped at Papyrus. "I- Um, I'm sorry?"

"Paps..." Frisk sighed. "Remember how I always said that people can show their love in different ways? Like how Dakota gives me a noogie when I go see her?"

The small child nodded.

"Asriel is complaining, but I bet if you asked him, he'd say he thought it was funny."

The goat-boy nodded. "Really, I did. And by tomorrow I'll have pranked them back, and they'll have thought it was funny, and come up with a way to get back at me. It's all in good fun."

Papyrus had a dubious expression, but he nodded again.

The rest of dinner was spent with Chara and Asriel exchanging progressively more wild tales on how they'd pranked each other. The tales were liberally sprinkled with bad puns and jokes, and interjections from the other diners.

After dessert, as Frisk was being handed a box containing an intimidating amount of leftover pie, they noticed that Sans's white pupils seemed to have become stars.

This worried Frisk more than they'd like to admit.

~! #$%^&*()_+

Frisk: Was fifteen when they fell, is eighteen or nineteen now. They lost track of the days.

Chara: Was five when they fell, is also eighteen or nineteen.

Asriel: Is seventeen.

Sans: Is nine.

Papyrus: Is five.

The other fallen humans are:

Danielle Davis (Patience/Light Blue): Twenty-three. She's the eldest fallen human. She was eleven whe she fell. She lives on her own in Waterfall, but after she fell, she was taken care of by Mettaton and Napstablook. She works at the Waterfall clinic as a therapist, and is widely thought of as the best at her trade in the Underground.

Jack Scott (Bravery/Orange): Fourteen. He fell at age four. He's being raised alongside Undyne and Dakota Trivera, by Undyne's parents and aunt, who's the current captain of the Royal Guard. He dreams of joining along with his 'Sisters', but for now he helps Gerson with his little shop.

Oddette Winson (Integrity/Dark Blue): Eight. She fell at age five. She currently lives with Mettaton, and is already gaining a following for her televised dancing to Blooky's beats.

Bianca Snodgrass (Perseverance/Purple): Nineteen. She fell into the Underground at thirteen. She lives with Muffet. Nobody's entirely certain if their relationship is romantic or platonic. She's extremely smart, and is currently trying to devise a safe method to transfer the spiders from the Ruins to the base in Hotland.

Jordan Jameson (Kindness/Green): Jordan fell at sixteen, now he's twenty-one. He lives and works as a chef at the as-yet-unnamed hotel at the CORE.

Dakota Trivera (Yellow/Justice): She's fifteen, she fell at eleven. She lives with Undyne's family. Like her 'brother' and 'sister', she idolizes her 'aunt' and wants to be part of the Royal Guard.


	6. Mirror, Mirror

Sorry it's been so long here, I was working on Counting Stars.

To apologize, here is the Chisk! Frira? Charisk? … Chisk. Imma call it Chisk.

~! #$%^&*()_+

 _Hope is the thing with feathers-_

The day the eighth human is escorted to the castle by the flame monster, you are interested, far more so than you ever were with the other six. You don't have a clue why you are so drawn to them. They are like any other human that fell into the Underground after you, they will carve out a place of their own and live their life out like any other subject of your parents.

And yet, you cannot stop thinking of them. It's so odd.

They look like you. Their soul is as brilliantly red as your own. They can spout poetry back at you as easily as you can quote it.

Their smile, however, is so, so _vibrant_... It could light up the entire Underground if given the chance.

So much prettier than your own.

You are interested.

 _That perches in the soul-_

When you first meet the original fallen human, you are interested. They have adapted to this strange world of monsters better than you think you can. They are considered as much of a prince by the denizens of the Underground as Asriel, the goat-like child of Toriel and Asgore. They are your age, and yet they have carved their own place in the world.

When you head back to Snowdin with an offer to stay at the bar until your new home is complete, you can't stop thinking about them.

They look a lot like you. Their soul is a shining red, as your own is. They seem to adore poetry, and it takes all of your memories of your mother's nightly readings to keep up with their quotes.

And yet, their beaming expression when you successfully finish all of the lines they spout is completely worth it.

So much better than the wooden grin they'd been wearing before.

You are fascinated.

 _And sings the tune without the words-_

They come back every week and have dinner with your family. All the other humans had standing offers to do the same, but they rarely took it up.

Frisk is different. Like clockwork, they appear every week at the same time, bringing along a determined set to their jaw, that sparkling smile directed at everything, the groans after a bad pun.

You like them. They flirt with everyone, even your parents and the servants and the Guard. They take entirely too much pleasure in making others blush, going out of their way to fluster people.

They greet your entire family with a kiss on the cheek, every time.

You are not certain if it should feel like your heart is trying to break out of your ribcage when they do.

 _And never stops- at all-_

You go back every week for dinner with the royals. You don't know if the other humans do, but you are happy to take the King up on the offer.

Chara is like nobody you've met before. Like clockwork, you visit at the same time every week, ready for the determined glint in their eyes, to try and bring out their true smile, for the awful puns.

You like them. They chatter about their most recent pranks, and seem to have an endless reserve of poetry. You consider it a personal challenge to fluster them, to get the apathetic expression that seems to be glue in place to go away.

You greet the entire royal family with a kiss on the cheek, every week.

You don't know if your stomach should feel like you have a dozen butterflies within it when it comes to be their turn.

 _And sweetest- in the Gale- is heard-_

Then, one week, they don't show up.

No contact, no warning.

 _And sore must be the storm-_

When the boys show up on your doorstep in the middle of a blizzard, begging for help, everything gets a bit hectic.

By the time you realize you've not called the Dreamurrs and explained yourself, an entire month has passed, and there are now several Royal Guards on your doorstep, under the impression you're deathly ill or perhaps even dead.

Whoops.

 _That could abash the little Bird_

Perhaps you overreached in sending those soldiers, but you were worried!

You were even more worried when Frisk refused to explain things, instead passing the members of the Royal Guard that you'd sent to her home a note telling you to meet them at midnight in Grillby's.

You are understandably shocked by her explanation. And you can tell there is a lot they aren't telling you.

But now that you are certain they are okay, you can afford to wait.

 _That kept so many warm-_

Perhaps you were a little careless in not letting them know that you weren't going to come over for a while,m but you didn't have time to think about Sunday dinner when you were trying to get two traumatized children to open up to you!

And you are worried about the level of involvement Asgore may have had in what little you'd managed to get out of the boys. The man they'd described was, after all, the Royal Scientist. So rather than explain over the phone, or some other method, you decide to do it in person. You're not willing to stray too far from the boys, and you don't think it is wise to have Chara over to your home just yet, so you have them meet you at Grillby's.

You give a brief explanation, telling them you found some abused children rooting through your trash and you were too focused on caring for them to think about calling the royal family.

It's not the whole truth, but it's all you're willing to admit without waiting for more information.

 _I've heard it in the chillest land-_

Meeting Sans and Papyrus had gone well, you thought, though Frisk had warned you they'd turned down the flirting recently. They didn't want the boys picking up bad habits.

Still, it was a much-needed return to normalcy.

You've started to realize that you have fallen in love with this slip of a teen.

This could either be a very good thing, or a very bad thing.

 _Yet- never- in Extremity,_

Introducing your boys to the royals really couldn't have gone better, though you were worried about the look in Sans's eyes at the end of the night.

Still, you keenly feel the absence of the usual kiss on the cheek for Chara.

You've had to re-examine your entire life recently, and in doing so, you realized, somewhere down the line, you fell in love with this brat.

This could either be a very good thing, or a very bad thing.

 _It asked a crumb- of me._


End file.
